Summary

The National Strategy on Community Safety and Crime Prevention aims to prevent crime through a social development approach with four priority groups: children, youth, Aboriginal communities, and women and girls’ personal security. Making women’s personal security a priority allows a gender element to be integrated into all work undertaken by the NCPC.

The emphasis is on the prevention of victimization by preventing youth from becoming involved in criminal acts in the first place. There is a gap in research on women and girls’ security. Gender-based analyses allow projects and models to be developed which are tailored to different situations or concerns, for example problems within large companies or awareness-building and education in communities.

It is necessary to find sources of sustainable funding and to create mechanisms for networking or places for exchange between local groups and national authorities. If we want to develop national strategies that truly reflect local realities, work must begin from the base on the ground in order to then move upward to higher and broader levels.